wednesday 13th april
6.00 to 7.30 pm “Meditation in daily life: working with emotions” Guided meditation with Mingyur Rinpoche

This series: Meditation in daily life is a rare opportunity to explore the practice of meditation with Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche.

All are welcome to discover how to use the richness of our emotional life as the foundation for the journey to awakening and learn to bring emotions in to the path – as the basis for inner peace and equanimity, as a source of radiant compassion and brilliant wisdom.

Mingyur Rinpoche is endowed with a rare ability to present the ancient wisdom of Tibet in a fresh, engaging manner. His profound yet accessible teachings and playful sense of humour have endeared him to students around the world. Most uniquely, Rinpoche’s teachings weave together his personal experiences with modern scientific research, relating both to the practice of mediation.

Hills have always nurtured human imagination. They have often been symbolic of the human will to overcome all odds. Today, we bring to you poetry from the hills, poetry originally written in the languages of Garhwali and Kumaoni. Garhwali and Kumaoni are sister languages, that have their origins in the mountains of Uttarakhand. And have subsequently travelled to other parts of India through the speakers as well as abroad. The origins of Garhwali and Kumaoni poetry can be dated back to early 19th century. Garhwali was originally the language of Pankaj dynasty of the Royal Court of Garhwal. And Kumaon was the court language of the Chand dynasty of Kumaon.

Garhwali and Kumaoni poetry explores all facets of human existence. The local culture of the hills is celebrated and the day to day problems faced by people living there are also highlighted. The complexities of modern day city life also figure out prominently in Garhwali and Kumaoni verse. Some prominent 20th century Garhwali poets are Abodh Bandhu Bahuguna, Kanhaiya Lal Dandriyal, Sudama Prasad Premee, Jaya Anand Khudsaal, etc. Well known 20th century Kumaoni poets are Sher Singh Anpadh, Girish Tiwari Gird, Pooran Chandra Kaandapal and Girish Bisht Hansmukh .

There will be 2 poets – Ramesh Chandra Ghildiyal and Girish Chandra Bisht Hansmukh reading their poems in Garhwali and Kumaoni respectively. The poets would also read a Hindi or English translation alongside the original. The readings would be interspersed with poets talking anecdotally about Garhwali and Kumaoni poetry. This would be interesting as very little is known about the literature of these languages in the mainstream. After the reading, there would be a brief talk by renowned Indian literary figure, Dr Ganga Prasad Vimal on the theme of Garhwali and Kumaoni poetry.

Ramesh Chandra Ghildiyal (Garhwali Poet) – Has 2 poetry collections and 2 novels in Garhwali to his credit. The novels are ‘ Aas’ and ‘ Beesveen Sadee Kaa Virahee Yaksh ‘. His Garhwali poetry collections are ‘ Bhaavnaaon ka Chauyya ‘ and ‘ Concrete ka Bhron ‘. He has also penned down a novel in Hindi and has a Hindi poetry collection to his credit. Mr Ghildiyal is currently pursuing independent research on contemporary politics in India.

Girish Chandra Bisht Hansmukh ( Kumaoni Poet ) – Well known Kumaoni poet. Works include ‘Guhaar’, ‘ Pahaade ki Peedh Abhivyaktee’, ‘ ‘Hansne Hansne Bidauv’. He has been honoured with the ‘Saahitya Sevi Samman’ award by the Saahitya Evam Sanskriti Prachar Samiti, Almora. He is specially known for his soulful renderings of self composed folk songs. He has also bought out an audio collection of some of the songs.

Ganga Prasad Vimal – “Renowned Hindi poet, story writer, novelist and translator. Dr Vimal has written 7 poetry collections, 4 novels and 11 story collections. He has translated around 15 books from other languages including poems, stories and novels. Has received many international awards and honours for his contribution to poetry and culture such as Poetry People Prize ( 1978), Gold Medal, National Museum of Literature, Sofia ( 1979 ), International Scottish Poetry Prize ( 1988 ) and Indian Language Award ( Bhartiya Bhasha Parishad ) ( 1992 ).

friday 29th april
6.30 pm A Course in Miiracles – An Introduction by Rachna Srivastava

A Course in Miracles is a book on spiritual psychotherapy, which literally means treatment of mind through spiritual methods, it is not a religion, neither it is a cult, there are no temples dedicated to its teachings.
Albert Einstein said “ there are two ways of living your life, you can live as if nothing is a miracle or you can live as if everything is a miracle”

When you live as if nothing is a miracle, you get trapped in the chaos of the world, where the feelings of attack, ego, fear, competition, etc rule your world, in chaos there is a constant quest for another way.

A Course in Miracles is a teaching device which helps you live your life as if everything is a miracle, and helps you find the other way, it helps in shifting your thought system from low vibrational thoughts to high vibration thoughts of kindness, compassion, love etc.

More importantly the thought system changes naturally and effortlessly, one starts experiencing it in day to day encounters, thereby frowns and stress takes place of smiles and bliss.

The question to be asked is” do you want to happy and peaceful, or you want to be right?” or “Do you want to Choose our inner power over the small self which is created through fear based emotions?”

A Course in Miracles helps you find answers to the most relevant question we face in our day to day life.

Rachana Srivastava works under the banner of her organisation titled “Present Moments by Rachana” . This is an organisation which helps resolving the challenges people face in professional and personal life, which helps in enhancing their performance in work and social.

1. She is the first Indian lecturer on A Course in Miracles in India and has the privilege to bring this thought system to India, this is a book on spiritual psychotherapy.

2. She is the founder of Culture Club which worked towards bringing performing arts to people for 4 years

3. Blogs:(a)her own blog(b)speaking tree(c)recently has been allowed blog space in Huffington post.

4. Editor of a local news letter Samvad

5. Chairperson of Team I-Clean which works towards maintaining clean environment in residential areas.

6. She is joint secretary and founder member of an NGO www.sss2003.org,an all India level NGO, which is now 12 years old.

7. She is a lawyer by qualification and training, she practiced in the high court of Maharashtra Nagpur bench for 10 years.